Bodywork structures of motor vehicles which are formed from longitudinal and transverse load-bearing members designed as hollow profiles and have a suspension strut dome, are known in a variety of designs.
With a known bodywork structure (JP 2003137132 A), a longitudinal member running in curved fashion with a hat-shaped profile is connected laterally to an upper and lower longitudinal member and forms part of a wheel housing. A suspension strut dome of this kind does not make any significant contribution to the bracing of the bodywork structure and the crash behaviour of the vehicle. This means that the other parts of the vehicle structure must be dimensioned to be of corresponding strength, which leads to increased vehicle weight.
With a known bodywork structure of the type referred to in the preamble (DE 196 30 647 A), the suspension strut dome is designed as a single-shell spatial moulding. The suspension strut dome makes an insignificant contribution towards increasing the rigidity of the bodywork structure.
Finally, a load-bearing structure for a suspension strut of a motor vehicle is known (DE 199 41 907 A1), which consists of an outer shell-shaped part and connected to it a partially shell-shaped inner part. Both parts are connected to one another at their edges. The inner part serves to reinforce the outer part. With such a load-bearing structure, however, the inner part is cut out in the support area of the suspension strut, such that the entire support load must be taken over by the outer part. Accordingly, the support function, as well as the improvement of the rigidity of the bodywork structure overall, is not provided by a load-bearing structure such as this.